Land of Gods
by Crysina
Summary: Welcome to Fenrir's Central America branch, where vicious aragami roam the lands and the people don't make it easy to work as a god eater. Join an unconventional squad on their journey to distinction, as they take on the challenges of this inhospitable land where gods run rampant.
1. Chapter 1 - Foreign Arrival

**Chapter 1 - Foreign Arrival**

 **February/21st/2064**

 **Fenrir Central America Branch Airspace - Yucatán**

"¿Estas despierta?"

Words I simply do not understand pull me out from my slumber. I blink my surroundings into existence and notice the dark metallic frame of my transport. Soon enough the muffled sound of the helicopter's engine and blades starts sounding a bit clearer in my ears.

I reach up to my head with my hand and try to scratch around my ear only to be reminded that I'm wearing a headset. I opt for just scratching the area around the ear cup and sigh deeply. There's something about traveling in a helicopter that is just annoying. Maybe it has something to do with the noise or perhaps it's the fact that every now and then the thing tends to shake violently.

I try to adjust my position a bit, but the safety belts of my seat are doing what they were designed for a little too well, keeping me in place.

"¿No vas a contestar?" I hear right next to my ear, "mal educada…"

"Ya callate…" I hear another voice say.

"I do understand what that means," I reply bitterly.

I take a look to my right towards the cockpit and see both the pilot and the co-pilot who just called me "rude". The man in question turns his body slowly and with a smile removes his aviator glasses.

"Hehe, perdon, I thought you were ignoring me," the pilot replies with a thick accent.

"I was sleeping," I reply as a yawn escapes through my lips, making what sounds like a high pitched moan in the process.

A bit ashamed I cover my mouth and quickly cough, but it's too late, both the pilot and copilot are already sharing a laugh.

"Either way, I'm awake now, what do you want?" I ask.

"We arrive shortly, thought I make sure you were up," he says.

His English sounds weird and maybe a tad bit broken, but it's easy to understand. I nod in his direction and turn my head a little to peek out through the small circular window in one of the sides of the chopper.

Through the small opening I'm able to see a beautiful beach with slightly see through blue water. It's a beautiful sight, sadly it contrasts harshly with the several hotel buildings that seem to be damaged or downright destroyed along the shore.

"Are things any better down here?" I ask, as I keep examining the vast array of crumbled streets and destroyed buildings, "It looks almost the same as it looks back home…"

Aragami have been doing a great job at tearing down the whole world in the past few years. Big cities reduced to rubble, beautiful forests turned into gray wastelands. They are just good at decimating everything.

"México was better in the past," he replies with a serious tone, not even a second later he and his partner start laughing.

"Siempre ha sido una mierda, ahora aparte hay monstruos," the pilot laughs.

"What was that?" I ask, feeling rather curious.

"He just said that it was shitty before, but now we got monsters," the co-pilot explains.

I turn once more to stare out to the beautiful beach and breathe in slowly.

"It's kind of beautiful though."

"Las playas siempre le gustaron a los turistas," the pilot huffs.

"Uh…what?"

"He said that tourists always liked the beaches," the co-pilot chuckles.

I did hear from my parents that Mexican beaches used to be very popular touring spots in the past. Just taking a peek down at them makes me confirm the fact. The water is like beautiful see through crystal and the sand looks as soft as a marshmallows.

"Ok, starting approach," the pilot says.

As he says this I can finally take a gander at Fenrir's Central American branch it's similar to the America branch and Far East branch. HQ is surrounded by a think wall, several building can be seen within the wall. Housing, for lucky people, staff and VIPs mostly. Everything else is probably R&D and training grounds. Just like back in America you can see extensive slums spread out as soon as the walls end. The main difference here is that part of what the walls surround seems to be a beach. I guess even in times like this you need some safe recreation.

The trip here wasn't really long, it could've been done in less than five hours. Sadly a heli's fuel tank is way smaller than an airplane's so we had to rendezvous with several air refueling crafts in order to make it here.

I take one last peek out the window and then look down at my bracelet. I trace around its circular shape with my fingers and then sigh as painful memories of the paring process flood my mind.

"So, why did they send you here?" the copilot asks.

"What do you mean?"

"There's only two reasons for god eaters being sent to this branch," he pauses, "You either are volunteering cause you are crazy, or you got sent here against your will."

My eyes drop yet again to my bracelet.

"I volunteered…" I mumble.

"Huh, you are one of the crazy ones, huh?"

"I guess…"

"Hang on!" the pilot huffs.

The heli finally lands, albeit a bit harshly. I feel my whole body shake as we finally touchdown. I remove my headset and hear as the pilot and copilot press and switch off an array of things in the front of the helicopter. The noise of the helicopter starts to die down and breathing in deeply I unbuckle the belts keeping me secure.

"Welcome to México," the pilot says, "I hope for your safety, you transfer back; new god eaters don't last long here."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Just like it sounds," the co-pilot butts in, "Aragami down here are especially aggressive. You better rub the green off of you quickly."

"How do you even know I'm new?" I question.

"I saw your god arc girl," he says with a smirk, "It's brand new, a new weird model at that."

Lacking the words to reply I turn my head over to a big metallic case towards the tail of the helicopter. I can feel it inside there, my weapon, my god arc.

"Either way, I need you to get out," he stresses, "We need to refuel and head back out."

"Yeah!" I squeak, "Yeah, yeah, sorry!"

The heli's cargo door opens slowly, letting the light of the scorching sun flood a bit of the inside. I stand up and walk towards the case containing my weapon. As I'm about to reach for it another man reaches for it.

"I got it from here," he says.

"I…uh…ok," I reply, dumbfounded.

With nothing else to do I step out through the open cargo door and cover my eyes as I look up to the sky. The sky is beautiful, cloudless; it even looks a bit odd, like a static blue color, unmoving.

"Keyla Boyd!" someone shouts.

Hearing my name startles me a little, but I quickly turn around and straighten my stance to a woman holding a tablet. She looks friendly; she wears a skirt suit, all black with a white blouse. Elegant, simple, practical. I can't help but notice the tone of her skin and her complexion, she is certainly not American. As she gets closer I try to remember what minimal Spanish I know.

"Ho-hola! Mi nombre es Keyla Boyd!" I say nervously.

"I know that, we've been waiting for you," she replies with a smile.

"Oh, you speak English…"

"That I do, over half of this facility does."

"But…you look…" I say and stop as soon as I realize my stupid wording.

"Mexican?" she asks, looking annoyed.

"I didn't mean to…I…uh…" I struggle as I shake both my head and hands.

"Sadly a common thing to happen with foreign god eater arrivals," she explains, "Do not worry though. My name is Linda Gutierrez, I'm Assistant Director of this branch, please accompany me."

The helipad is located on top of the HQ building, looking around I can see all of the buildings inside that walls and the reaches of the slums spreading outside the walls. Linda makes her way to a set of stairs and I follow quickly trying not to get left behind. I have many questions, but everything about this arrival makes me think it's going to have to wait.

In the distance I can see another chopper approaching, maybe more god eaters.

"We don't have a lot of time right now, I must assign you to a squad so you can get to your duties as quickly as possible," Linda explains as she opens a door leading to more stairs that go downwards.

A few seconds of walking lead us into a big room; it looks almost identical to the dispatch room back in the America Branch. Terminals surround the area we entered the room from and there are several couches and chairs for people to wait until they are dispatched. Close to the terminals you can find a large desk, behind it there's a man and a woman, both of them outfitted with headsets and intensely working on their respective terminals.

There are more people in the room, some of them I identify as god eaters thanks to their armlets. A group of them comes in behind us making a lot of noise. I can't help but to notice they are all wearing what looks like uniforms; black military fatigues with Fenrir's logo on the right arm. Outfitted with vests, knee and elbow pads on top of the fatigues.

"Screw recon work," I hear one shout.

"Oh shut up, it went well," another replies.

"I guess, well at least I'm not covered in aragami blood this time around."

"This is the dispatch room, this room you should be familiar with, almost all Fenrir Branches strive to have similar design, and so as far as I'm concerned this room is almost identical in all branches.

"Sorry, you said something about most of the people here speaking English?" I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me, "Why is that?"

"This branch is in its majority composed of outsourced America branch personnel," she says, "You will find staff and god eaters alike speak English for this reason. However, I do encourage you to learn Spanish. Not all of the staff or god eaters for that matter speak English."

The woman holds her tablet up and seems to be lost in a trance as her eyes dart around quickly and her fingers swipe in all directions.

"You are one of those prototype god eaters," she mumbles, "Yet, you have no combat experience?"

"I've only gone through training," I reply, "I asked to be sent here practically as I finished it."

"Odd…" she mutters, "The director wants you assigned to a very particular squad."

"Is there a problem with that?" I ask.

Her nose wrinkles a little as I ask my question and she sighs deeply.

"To my criteria, with your training results and god arc, I think your talent is going to be wasted, but the director wants you assigned to Kilo Squad."

The dispatch room grows silent and several people start staring in our direction. Amidst the silence I can make out a single person making my situation quite clear.

"Geez, with those guys?"

"What's wrong with Kilo Squad?" I ask.

"Nothing is fundamentally wrong with Kilo…" Linda says, "Fundamentally…"

I'm about to ask my next question when a loud crackle sounds off from the speakers in the room. They make a sound as if they were malfunctioning, generating a high pitched noise that makes me reach up to cover my ears.

"Echo Squad, dispatch is ready, head to the helipad," the speakers announce.

"We should get going, the director already informed one of your squad members about your arrival," Linda says, walking away without even waiting for me.

I look around nervously as I'm left behind and make a quick effort to catch up with Linda. She is rather fast for a person wearing heels. She enters an elevator on the far side of the room and I manage to make it in as the doors are closing.

"You are kind of slow on your feet," Linda states.

"I…uh…sorry," I say while scratching the back of my head.

"Do you have any questions so far?"

So many.

"America Branch doesn't have uniforms, why do you have them here?" I ask.

"Did you not ask for information before asking to be transferred here?" she asks, seemingly annoyed.

I feel myself make a face that easily spells out that I didn't as I shrug.

"God eaters in this branch are also in charge of policing both inside of the walls and outside in the slums," she explains, "I strongly suggest getting up to speed as soon as you can, Miss Boyd. I apologize for how straight forward my next sentence is going to sound, but I need to say it."

I feel a cold shiver run down my spine and find myself taking a step back only to meet one of the walls in the small elevator.

"This branch is not for green horns like you, I don't care if your god arc is top of the line or if your training results look great," she says, "If you are going to stay here and most importantly if you plan to stay alive you better surprise us all with your performance."

The shiver going down my spine seems to stretch for the longest time as all I can do is stare into Linda's steely eyes. Linda breaks eye contact with me as the elevator stops and a small chime sounds off to tell us we have arrived to our destination floor.

I feel like a dog with its tail between its legs as I follow her into a narrow corridor where I can see a figure standing on its tiptoes as it leans into an open door.

"That's her," Linda says, "She already knows that she is going to be the one receiving you. I have others matter to attend to, I apologize for the hassle. I hope to see you later, Miss Boyd."

I can only swallow my own spit as I hear her say that she hopes to see me later. Linda turns around to promptly start heading back the way she led me through. In a bit of a fit of panic I turn around to her.

"W-wait…I" I stutter, but she is already going in the elevator we rode a few seconds ago, "What's her name..."

Slowly I pivot my body again, there is this black haired girl poking her head into a room on the right, she wears the same uniform I have seen in all god eaters so far. Getting a bit closer I see a label on the wall that reads "Cocina/Kitchen". She seems to be in the middle of a heated discussion, I'm not able to make out her face, but her hair is beautiful, long and silky looking. A weird part inside has the sudden urge to touch it, but I'm nowhere near familiar with this girl to do that. We are total strangers.

Taking a deep breath I try to remember what little Spanish I know and ready myself.

"Uhm, ho-hola," I say.

"Come on, Pablo, this is not the time to cut me off," she says in perfect English.

Surprised I feel my eyebrow rise a little and feeling a bit more confident a take a few steps to get closer to her.

"Excuse me!" I yelp, my excitement of hearing another English speaker getting the better of me like before.

"I ain't cutting you off, I'm just sayin you gonna need to pay more," a voice replies, "I already got in trouble for giving you double rations, you gotta make it worth my while here."

"But I don't have more money Pablo!" the girl whines, "No te aproveches…"

I recoil a bit as I also hear her speak in Spanish.

"I'll give you half of my beer ration," the girl proposes.

I keep myself from saying anything as there's a silence between this girl and this Pablo person.

"Deal, now get out of here."

The girl jumps and twirls around victorious. In the middle of her twirl she stops and looks straight at me. She gasps in awe and then smiles, something about her slightly slanted eyes and smile, just feels warm and welcoming. She brings both of her hands together in front of her and I notice two bulky red armlets over her wrists, one on each wrist.

"Hello, hello!" she says with a smile, "I know who you are! Keyla, right?! You look so much prettier than the picture in your dossier!"

Still in awe I feel my eyes glued to her hands.

"Why do you have two?" I ask, being rude, and completely discarding her compliment.

I shake my head rapidly and slap both of my hands against my cheeks. In a fit of panic I salute her as if she was my superior.

"My name is Keyla Boyd, it's nice to meet you!" I scream.

I only see her smile and laugh a little as she covers her mouth. She looks so young; eying her out a little I'm able to tell I'm just a tad bit taller than her maybe an inch or two. Her skin is white and soft looking; her factions still look very juvenile. Small nose and jaw, then again maybe that's just her descent.

"I know that, but since we are doing introductions," she says as she strikes a bit of pose, "My name is Miku, Miku Arakawa. I'm your new squad mate and roomie!"

Embarrassed I put my hand down and shrug once more. Seconds later my eyes find their way into staring at Miku's hands again.

"Oh right!" she says as she turns her wrist to allow for me to ogle even harder at them. "I've gone through the pairing process twice. I have two god arcs, new people always stare."

"How does that work?" I ask, "Wouldn't the oracle cells from each god arc reject each other?"

"Short story even shorter," she giggles, "My god arcs were made from the same aragami, and they tell me it was a huge one. Not to mention they were also looking for guinea pigs…"

That last bit she says so devoid of energy and any tone at all that I'm left wondering a little. However she quickly claps her hands together to make me focus.

"Alrighty then," she sings, "Let's get you into your uniform and go look for our squad leader!"

"Where can we find him…uh, her?" I stumble with my words.

Miku suddenly grabs my hand and drags me down the corridor past a few doors before finally stopping in front of a door with her name on it. Her name is written on a small strip that seems to be held by a small metal slot. Under her name there's another slot, but it seems to be empty. I guess I will be putting my name in there.

I want to ask why people think badly of Kilo Squad but she speaks before I can even think of the words to ask her.

"He's a he," she chortles, "We can probably find him in his favorite bar."

The door to our room opens as Miku swipes a card over a reader on the right side of the door and she pulls me in.

"Excuse me?" I mumble.

I see her zoom into the room as she finally lets go of me and skipping like a little girl she makes her way to a small locker on the left of the room.

"Yeah, he probably is drunk somewhere," she replies, unfazed, "I received your uniform in the morning, I was so excited, I'm finally getting a roomie!"

Suddenly why Kilo Squad got the reactions it got in the dispatch room no longer surprise me.

She opens the locker on the right; it's empty besides a set of Fenrir fatigues that appear to be neatly folded. Miku grabs them and turns around. She makes a funny little dash towards me and presses the clothes against my chest.

"Come on, come on, we got to find him!"

I grab my fatigues and look around for another door inside the room. Sadly I do not find one.

"Uh, we don't have a bathroom?" I ask.

"Well…there's one in the hallway…" Miku mutters, "Oh! Ok, I'll leave you to it!"

She goes around me in the blink of an eye and with smile she steps out of the room to give me a little privacy.

As the door closes behind me I find myself in complete and utter silence. I can feel my heart beating through my ears and slowly I calm down by breathing in and out steadily. That girl is like an adrenaline rush.

I look around, more carefully this time. There are two lockers on the left, once again one of them has Miku's name written on it. To the right of the lockers is a bunk bed, the supports for the small mattresses seem to be coming out of the wall. They look comfy enough. Other than that not much sticks out of the room. There are two terminals next to the door, each parallel to each other, a small fridge next to them and a small table with two chairs in the middle of the room. I guess the one word to describe the room would be practical.

There's a small window that looks out to what seems to be a small courtyard. On the small window sill on the inside of the room there's a small pot with an orchid. It appears to just have started growing; the very small stem spouting from the dirt is already tied to a small stick that helps it keep straight. Flowers a rare sight these days, I feel an odd fascination towards the small pot.

I try to get back on task and undress, I start dressing myself with the fatigues. I'm surprised that I find them comfortable and that they actually feel nice on the skin. I was expecting them to itch or feel bad. I head to the door and press a small button on the side to open it.

"Good!" Miku says, "That was fast, now let's get our gear and head to the slums!"

"We need gear for the slums?" I ask.

"Oh wow…" Miku says uncomfortably, "You really are new…"

* * *

As we enter the checkpoint to go past the walls of Fenrir I still can't shake how uncomfortable I feel. Everyone keeps telling me I'm new, and they make really unnerving remarks about it. Adding to that uncomfortable feeling is a handgun currently strapped to my right leg. I can't help but to keep my hand anxiously hovering over it.

"You'll get used to it," Miku say, "I haven't used mine in the longest while! Well…last week I did…hey, but I didn't fire it!"

She goes silent for a solid two seconds.

"Well I did...but they were warning shots!"

"Are things really that bad here?" I ask.

"Things are bad everywhere, but here the police and army are sort of merged with Fenrir," she explains, "Unlike other branches there's a particular need for order here, and they asks us god eaters to help since we are the ones keeping people safe from aragami."

"Alright, you are clear," a guard says as he hands us back our IDs, "When you find Arturo tell him he still owes me money."

"Arturo?" I ask.

"He's our squad leader," Miku smiles, "I'll be sure to tell him."

Everything about this man so far just sounds great, so great.

A loud buzzer sounds off and a set of metal doors open to reveal a dirty street, filled with makeshift shacks, half destroyed buildings and people wondering about their business. On the other side of the doors there are three guards, all of them toting rifles and the same Fenrir uniform I am. However they don't seem to have armlets.

Thinking hard it really isn't that different from how things are back home. Anything outside of the Fenrir branches is pretty rundown.

"Alright…" Miku mutters as she presses her index finger against her lips, "I know three bars where he is a regular."

Lovely.

"Where do we start?" I ask.

Not uttering another word Miku starts heading to a small alley not far from the branch's entrance. She doesn't even wait for me. Since I got here I feel like I'm being left on purpose. Miku resembles a hound sniffing out its prey. She stops at a wooden door and softly pushes it open. I follow in behind her and as soon as I enter the smell of vomit and booze hits my nose with full force. I hold my breath and cover my nose to avoid contributing anymore to the vomit smell.

"Carlos!" Miku yells.

Inside, there are about seven tables; all of them have their chairs turned upside down except for one. On that particular table you can find a man resting his head on the table.

Perhaps my squad leader?

A little bit further inside you can spot an old man with tan skin tending to his bar, slowly wiping it with a piece of cloth.

"If it isn't my favorite Asian," The man behind the bar replies with a husky voice replies.

"Awesome Carlos, racist and broad," Miku jokes, "You've seen Arturo around?!"

"It's only a joke," Carlos says, "No, he hasn't been here today. He is probably over at Laura's."

Miku is about to turn around, but stops.

"You sure?" she asks.

"I'm willing to bet money," Carlos replies, "Speaking of, if you find him tell him he still owes me last week's tab."

"Doe he owe money to everyone?" I ask, trying to be funny.

Miku stops, crosses her arms and grabs her chin, appearing deep in thought.

"Really?!" I retort in disbelief.

"Well…not everyone…" she laughs, "Either way, Laura's is right around the corner, let's go!"

We exit Carlos' bar and take a right to go further down the alley. Not a minute of walking in that direction we find ourselves at Laura's.

"The sign outside the door literally says Laura's…" I mumble.

"Well, it is the owner's name," Miku adds.

Miku once again takes initiative and pushes the door open. The smell this time around is nowhere near bad. There is actually a strong scent of pine as if the place had been cleaned just recently with some kind of product. Compared to Carlos' this bar is a little nicer, the floor is clean, the tables are all cleaned up, but just like at Carlos' there is one man hunching over in alcoholic sleep, this time around however, on the bar. He is even snoring loudly.

"Laura! Is Arturo here?!" Miku shouts.

"Hey, Miku," A woman behind the bar calls out, "Yeah, he is here."

"How long has he been here?" Miku asks.

"Desde las cuatro de la mañana," Laura replies.

"Hah! That means since four in the morning!" I scream in excitement.

Laura stares at me with an annoyed look and suddenly I feel like dying. On the other hand Miku claps her hands together and smiles.

"Yes it does!" she says with excitement, "You'll get the hang of Spanish in no time!"

We get closer to the bar and I keep my distance from the snoring man as Miku approaches him.

"Hey Arturo!" Miku shouts right next to his ear, waking him up with no regard to his sleep whatsoever.

Arturo sits up and turns around with bloodshot eyes. He smacks his lips together, followed by a classy burp and covers his eyes, cowering way from the light emanating from the light bulbs of the establishment.

"¡Que chingados!" the man shouts, "¡¿Ni una puta vez me puedes dejar dormir?!"

"I wouldn't say passing out because you drank your ass off sleeping," Miku replies as she crosses her arms, "Solo levántate de una vez, esta es nuestra nueva compañera."

"¿Ya está aquí?, bienvenida al escua-"

"No habla español," Miku interrupts him, using her hands to mimic an opening and closing mouth.

With an annoyed look he presses his eyes shut and rubs his forehead.

"Mierda…ok, right, right," he mumbles.

Finally standing up from the rundown stool he was sitting on, he zips up his jacket and turns around to face us. Just now I'm finally able to see his face a bit better; his sharp jaw is covered with a short beard that goes from one ear to the other. He has brown, slightly narrow eyes and a very pretty nose for a man.

He coughs loudly to clear his throat, snapping me out of my over-analyzing gaze.

"I'm Arturo Troncoso," he introduces himself, "Welcome to Kilo Squad."

* * *

Crysina here!

I hope you enjoyed reading this first chapter of my new story!

God it's been a while, but I'm finally back with another story, as you can pretty much same as beofre I'm merely borrowing the universe to spin out my own story. This time around god eater, thankfully there isn't much you need to understand about god eater to enjoy my story if you never even heard about god eater. Aragami are monsters that can only be killed by god eaters using god arc, boom, done.

I'm excited to see new and old readers come to this story, the traffic for this section isn't as heavy as SAO's but that doesn't matter I just really wanted to try my hand at God Eater's universe since I like it a lot. On another note, I do not currently have a lot of chapters ready like with my other story, so until I do the update schedule for this story will be irregular and I cannot really give you a day in which I will be uploading new chapters. However, I hope to further along the line come up with scheduled uploading.

That is all for today! If you like what you read please leave a review, if you don't you can do so as well!

I will see you all soon!


	2. Chapter 2 - A Taste of Blood

**Chapter 2 – A Taste of Blood**

 **February/21st/2064**

 **Slums - Yucatán**

"Welcome to Kilo Squad."

As my so called squad leader utters these very words I cannot believe my eyes, or my nose for that matter. I can smell the alcohol coming out of his mouth. A grotesque mixture of an already foul breath and alcohol is enough to almost trigger my gag reflex. However, keeping my composure I force a smile as stand up straight with my arms at my sides.

"Nice to meet you," I say, "I'm Keyla Boyd."

"What's with the formality kid," he mumbles, "drop the military attitude please; I don't deal well with it."

I can almost feel the slight twitch on my eyebrow.

"Don't blame her," Miku butts in, "her family is like all military."

"How do you know that?" I ask.

"Your dossier is…specific," she shrugs.

Arturo chuckles a little and elegantly wipes his mouth with his sleeve. He slowly walks past both Miku and I to head for the bar's entrance.

"Alright, let's get going, I think we are already late for guard duty," he says.

"Hey!" Laura screams, "Are you going to pay for your drinks?"

"Put them in my tab, we are already late," Arturo replies.

Not even waiting for the woman to answer to his demand, Arturo exits the bar, leaving both Miku and I behind. I turn to Miku, expecting her to have an annoyed expression, but instead she just wears a dumb looking smile over her face. However, instead of speaking out my mind I opt for trying to ride this already massive tsunami of questions and mixed feelings.

"We have guard duty?" I ask.

"Yes!" she turns to me with a smile, "Our squad is tasked with guard duty this month!"

Another barrage of questions starts flooding my mind, but I hardly think I will have any time to even start asking them. So let's at least ask one.

"This month?" I pry.

"Oh, right, I keep forgetting we will have to be explaining pretty much how everything works," she mumbles and starts heading out of the bar, "I'll tell you as we go, come on."

I follow her out of the bar and once outside my nose picks up on the smell of cigarettes. Turning my head around to locate the smoker ends up leading me to my squad leader. He leans against a nearby wall as he slowly exhales a thick cloud of smoke out of his mouth.

A man of many vices I suppose.

Miku walks over to Arturo and with feline agility snatches the cigarette out of his hand. In one swift motion she throws the thing on the floor and promptly steps over it.

"You told me you were quitting!" she complains.

An unpleasant expression takes over Arturo's face as he reaches into his pocket, taking his pack of cigarettes out of hiding.

"I've already tried quitting like four times, it's not for me," he mumbles, "leave me alone, it's not like it's hurting you."

Miku reaches for the pack before Arturo has time to open it and also yanks it away from his hands. She pockets the cigarettes and crosses her arms. The scene unfolding before my very eyes is oddly reminiscent from the time my mother found out my brother had started smoking. Funny enough, just like that time I stand in silence, watching the scene unfold.

"Whenever I'm around your stupid smoke my nose gets all stuffy!"

"And why is that my fault? Your nose is just crappy then," he replies, "And why the hell are you suddenly speaking to me in English? Your Spanish is decent."

"Your habits are crappy!" Miku answers, "I'm speaking in English so she can understand, remember? Our new squad mate?"

Arturo turns to me and lifts an eyebrow as if he had forgotten me already.

"Right…sorry, I guess," he says, "Ok, since you won't let me smoke at least we should get to the drop point."

Before I even get time to ask Miku turns to me and grabs my hand.

"Let's get going then," she says with excitement, "Ok, Keyla, so this month we get guard duty, this means we have to make a sweep around some areas that HQ wants us to check out, it's really easy stuff and we only run into small aragami."

"What is the drop point?" I ask.

It's a bit hard to keep up with Miku who keeps constantly pulling on my arm; she is going a bit too fast. On top of that I have to make the most out of her extremely condensed explanation.

"It's were we are going to get our god arcs and coms," Arturo says, "Brought your radio Mimi?"

"Yes, do I call it in?" Miku replies.

"Mimi?" I ask absentmindedly.

"It's just a nickname," Arturo answers as if annoyed by my question, "and yeah, call it in."

My eyes go over to Miku who is just shrugging with a smile. She reaches for her hip where a radio hangs from and brings it up to her mouth. She presses the button and the devices crackles for a split second.

"HQ this is Kilo, requesting arc drop off," Miku issues.

"Kilo this is HQ, copy on your arc request, arcs will arrive in five minutes, drop off will track your armlets, how copy," the small radios sounds off.

"Copy," Miku says and straps the radio back on her hip.

"The America branch doesn't do drop offs," I comment.

"We do things differently here, drops off are a regular thing," Arturo huffs.

The state of the slums starts getting worse and worse as we distance ourselves from the wall. At least that much stays true to how things are back home. The further you stray away from the branch the more you can see the toll of the war against aragami.

"Since most god eaters are away from HQ doing police work drop offs happen often for us to get our gear in case we need it."

I guess it only makes sense, what I still find is stupid is the fact that Fenrir puts people like us doing the work the police should be doing. We are wasted resources if they are really expecting us to stop burglars or things of the like.

"I can't wait to see Keyla's god arc," Miku sings.

"Why?" Arturo asks.

"OH MY GOD, why didn't you read her dossier?!" she whines, "Oh, right, you were black out drunk in a bar."

"Yeah, whatever," Arturo brushes it off, "Are you going to tell me or not?"

"Of course I am!"

These two are a weird pair.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable with Miku divulging my information I decide to take a little tiny step in initiative.

"My god arc is a prototype," I butt in, "It is both a gun and a blade."

This gets Arturo attention to the point that instead of giving me his back he turns around and starts walking backwards to look at me.

"Sounds neat," he says softly.

For some reason his attention makes a bit nervous and I keep talking.

"It's something weird they are pioneering, they want to be able to make a god arc that generates ammo from the cells the blade comes in contact with," I explain, "My god arc can't do that it's just one of the few that can go from gun to blade and back."

"Huh," Arturo huffs, "Sounds great, they need to really start working on that."

With that he turns back around and I suddenly feel back at ease. The man looks scary; the fact that he is the person in command makes it a little more intimidating.

After a few minutes of walking we make it to a small clearing, the dirt below my feet is kind of moist but I guess that is due to the humidity.

"Here's good, we are far enough," Arturo says.

Miku's radio sounds off with a little bit of static and she reaches for it.

"Kilo this is Aztec one, approaching drop off, will be there in sixty seconds,"

"Aztec one this is Kilo, copy," Miku replies.

"Miku!" the man over the radio yells in a melodic tone, "How are you doing this fine afternoon?"

"We are ok," Miku sings back, "Just going out on patrol."

"There his is," Miku points up to a helicopter coming at us from the wall, "I like Frederick, he makes most of our drop offs."

"Who's Frederick?" I ask.

"He is just the helo pilot," he answers.

I have not had any kind of field experience, but my few hours in this branch have shown me that they operate in a whole different way than they do in the America branch. For starters there seems to be a weird lack of formality. What I heard from my brothers and father always sounded so monotonous, so boring. Then again this weird mood in the air might just be Kilo's charm. The charm I figure they are shunned for.

"I hardly think it's a coincidence that he makes most of the drop offs," Arturo mutters.

"Huh? Why?" Miku asks.

"He likes you," Arturo replies.

"Aww, he does?"

"How are you doing this fine afternoon," Arturo repeats imitating the pilots tone.

The sound of the helicopter getting closer becomes deafening in a matter of seconds and soon enough the aircraft is hovering above us. I stare up at it like a stupid child and feel as Arturo takes hold of me. He pulls me along with him to the side just in time for me to see four metallic cases slam against the ground.

Drop offs seem to be taking their title a little too literally.

"Thank you," I say, but can't even hear my own words.

The helicopter turns around leaving us to our own devices, and a few seconds after I can hear Miku humming a tune as she makes a straight line to the cases.

"You need to be careful," Arturo says, "I admit we didn't exactly explain, but you need to watch out."

"I...uh… yes, yes!" I stutter, "I'm sorry."

"It's ok, let's gear up," he says.

He starts heading to the cases and I stay frozen for a solid three seconds.

"Thank you," I say softly.

Arturo doesn't reply nor seems to have heard me as he doesn't stop walking to the cases. I feel myself blush and follow him. I'm just making a fool out of myself. All four cases look the same in design, they only vary in sizes. Two of the cases must be Miku's, one Arturo's and the last one is surely mine.

Taking a closer look I do notice a slight difference in one of the cases, one of them, the smallest actually, has a strap. Miku picks it up and swings it over her arm as if the thing were a purse. She then kneels down and opens one of the big cases.

"Arturo, yours is here," she says.

Arturo stops and heads straight to Miku. I reach one of the unopened cases and kneel down to open it. For some reason I'm sure the case I'm kneeling next to is mine. I can feel it. I flip the latches off and open it, revealing the god arc I have not used once out of a training room along with five extra rounds for my gun. There is also a small box on the side, perhaps a radio.

A massive blade with a blue-ish hue, spanning the whole length of my body, I trace my hand over the bulky cross guard where the blade starts and where the gun is currently hiding. I grab the blade's grip and with a bit of effort I'm able to lift it with one hand. Next to the sword's grip there is a handle that sticks out awkwardly from the cross guard. Slowly I grab it with my left hand, twist it and pull it towards me. As I pull, the blade retracts and the bulky guard opens up to form a cannon the size of my head. Pulling the handle any further will fire the weapon.

"Wow!" Miku says in awe as she approaches me with a massive rifle in her hands.

Despite being huge she seems to have no trouble whatsoever in carrying it. In fact the thing looks light on her hands.

"How many rounds can that hold?" she asks.

"Five, it's very powerful in close range, like real close range," I say, "Anything outside of fifty feet I will miss easily."

"So it's like a shotgun, huh?"

"I guess so," I say as I turn around to pick up the extra rounds HQ was kind enough to send in the case.

I notice my uniform is handily equipped with a pouch and quickly pocket the extra rounds there. I take a closer look at Miku's weapon and arrive to the conclusion that the massive rifle is in fact a sniper rifle. It looks just like my brother's actually, or at the very least uncannily familiar. The weapon resembles a large skinny needle, except for the area around the trigger which bulks up to make space for the bullets to fit in.

"This here is Taka," she says as she shows off the weapon to me, "The one in the box is Yajuu but I'll present him later."

"You are normally weird with everyone," Arturo says, "but do you really want to tell the new transfer that you give your weapons names?"

He approaches us as he drags a massive blade behind him. It's significantly bigger than my own making his type of weapon a buster blade. It's vastly different from any others I have seen; it strongly resembles an ancient Aztec weapon. To summarize it looks strongly like a long wooden stick with embedded sharp edges on its sides.

"You give your god arc names?" I ask, taking my eyes off Arturos's god arc.

"Yeah, it's only because they are super cool."

"Ask her why they are cool later," Arturo huffs, "we have a job to do, so get your coms and let's get moving."

With nothing to retort about and feeling the authoritative tone in Arturo's voice I bend a knee and pick up a small box inside my god arc's case. I open the box and reveal a small ear piece along with a radio much like Miku's. I strap the radio to my waist and place the earpiece inside my ear.

I turn just in time to see Arturo placing his earpiece and radio in place, with a big sigh he clears his throat and reaches to his ear with two fingers.

"Radio check," I hear Arturo's voice through my ear piece.

"I read you," I answer.

"Read you as well," Miku sings through the radio.

"Alright then," Arturo sighs, "HQ this is Kilo, starting sweep."

"Kilo this is HQ, we copy, be advised there's been several sightings of chivos in your area."

"What?" I ask genuinely confused.

"Chivos," Arturo repeats, "They are these goat like things, around twice your twice, creepy red eyes, almost like they are on fire."

I think this is the part where a smart person would decide to tell her squad mates that she has never in her life fought an aragami. I swallow my own spit and like the stupid girl that I am I decide not to share this vital little piece of information.

"They make these cute -baaa- noises," Miku says.

"You have an odd definition for cute then…" Arturo replies, "Just watch their necks and we'll be fine, I'm willing to bet there's around four or five."

"Let's get going then! I'm so excited!" Miku shouts.

Arturo nods and once again reaches for his earpiece.

"Arc cases are staying in drop off location," he says.

"Copy, retrieval will be dispatched immediately."

"Mimi, stay behind us, I need you checking our asses, be extra careful for today," he says, "Boyd, you are with me."

I nod and position myself next to Arturo.

"Alright, let's move out."

* * *

The so called sweeping of the area turns out to be rather uneventful, after walking for over an hour we are yet to encounter Aragami. Surprisingly though, we have done our work in complete and utter silence. Even for my silent and cautions demeanor I can't help but to feel rather awkward. Not to mention it's a somewhat odd since the only thing Arturo and Miku seem to not be able to do since I met them was to keep quiet.

I take a look behind me to see the Japanese girl with flawless hair darting her eyes around the area we are currently walking through. It almost looks like she is just letting her eyes wonder but there's something about her expression that makes it look serious.

I clear my throat and look in Arturo's direction.

"So…" I start, "are you two like a couple?"

Miku starts laughing, despite being rather distanced from us, I hear her over my earpiece and I blush as I realize she probably heard me as clearly as I can hear her laughing. Her laughter continues to the point where she has to take deep breaths in order to continue laughing.

Without even looking at me Arturo simple gestures to his earpiece and sighs.

"Coms are always open for us," he says, "and if the laughter isn't enough to tell, no, we aren't."

"Yeah, hahahaha, oh geez…hahahaha," Miku struggles, "I just can't seem to fall for his attractive vices."

Arturo stops dead on his tracks and points ahead of him.

"Callense, chivos," he says.

"Shut up?" I ask.

"She understood you Arturo!" Miku says, sounding overjoyed.

"Woo-fucking-hoo," he says as he finally stops dragging his god arc across the dirt.

I turn my head slightly to side I see a big creature standing on four legs. Just like Arturo said the thing resembles a goat. It easily stands over double my height and its skin just by eyeing it seems to be made out of some hard material. I had heard of Aragami having unusual features but hardened skin is something actually never heard of. Its neck is rather long and its mouth is filled with razor like teeth. Massive horns make its head lean to the side, only accenting its already creepy eyes thanks to the position of its head.

Growing a little too nervous I look around and scan the area. There's what looks like a destroyed home not far to my left, a few walls are still left standing but other than that it's just rubble. There's a long wall to my right the same one we've been walking along for quite some time now. The aragami seems to be making a slow walk towards the rubble on the left.

"Alright, don't let it scream," Arturo says, "If it does we'll be in trouble."

"Mimi, stand back and shoot only if it's not dead after we attack it."

I tighten the grip around my weapon and trying not to shake I nod.

The "Chivo" is casually giving us its back as it feeds on the rubble. Despite already seeing us, it seems not to mind us, I have never heard of aragami with that type of behavior.

"Cut its head off," Arturo says and without any other explanation he dashes towards the aragami.

Arturo swings his blade at the chivo's front legs and with one swing he easily cuts them off, spraying blood both in my direction and all over the dirt. The aragami falls to his stumps leaving a nice opening to his neck. Reacting on instinct alone I follow Arturo's trajectory and swing my blade above my head. I bring it down with all my strength and close my eyes in the process. A second later I feel my weapon stop against the ground.

"¿Me estas chingando?" Arturo shouts.

I open my eyes to see my blade stuck on the ground mere inches away from the chivo's face. In a demonic like manner the aragami twists its neck and looks at me straight in the eye. I freeze and hear it scream in my direction. The so called -baaa- sound Miku describes as cute pierces my ears, leaving me in frozen in fear.

"Mimi, watch the wall!" Arturo orders.

I let go of my god arc and back away as I hold my hands to my head.

"I have visual on two others, am I clear to fire?!" Miku asks.

"You are clear!"

I hear Miku's gun fire and echo loudly as the sound bounces off the nearby wall, that along with the chivo who is still screaming mixes inside my head only to leave my ears ringing. Once again Arturo takes a hold of me, but unlike before he throws me harshly to side, I see him lift his weapon and swing it down, cutting the chivo's head, silencing him in the process.

"One down," Miku says.

"This one here is dead as well," Arturo grunts.

From the ground I see her pull the bolt on her rifle, a big casing ejects from her gun and she wastes no time in loading another into the chamber. Arturo grabs my right arm and pulls me off the ground.

"Get on your fucking feet and grab your god arc," he screams, "Its friends are coming."

He turns around lifting his weapon and resting the massive blade over his shoulder.

"Mimi! Agachate!" Arturo shouts.

Miku turns around, disregarding the other aragami speeding towards her and drops on her ass. Arturo swings his blade over her and decapitates the aragami with little effort. Blood sprays once again this time reaching me, I feel the warm liquids splatter my face and I reach up to touch it. In disbelief I stare at it after staining my hands.

I look around frantically and locate my god arc. I reach for it and pull it out of the ground.

"Behind you, Keyla!" Miku shouts.

I shift my body trying to turn around and swing my god arc all in the same movement. My body feels sluggish; the god arc almost feels too heavy. I'm panicking.

As I turn around I see another chivo approaching me. My blade misses him and I see it twist its head towards my own. An odd ringing sensation courses through my skull as it bashes its head against mine.

I don't let go of my god arc this time, instead as I fall to the ground I grasp the handle next to the grip and pull on it with all my strength. I feel the weapon morph in my hand and as I keep pulling I feel it fire with intensity. A shock runs through my hands all the way up to my shoulders.

The aragami screams as it loses one leg thanks to my poorly made shot. I push the handle forwards, ejecting and empty shell.

Again.

I pull once more, this time I can almost see the bullet travel. I see it pierce right through the chivo's thorax.

Again.

The shock in my hands feels like just a slight numbness as I fire my third shot. Sadly its nothing but another crappy shot and I only manage to damage the aragami a little more. I push the handle, ejecting another round. Tired of taking damage the aragami throws itself over my, I can see its mouth trying to chomp on me, but I manage to distance the thing away from me, by placing the cannon of my gun right on its belly.

Again.

Pulling the handle back feels surprisingly easy this time around, it basically slides with no effort at all back and I feel the blood spray my body and trickle down my weapon as I eject the second to last shell in my gun.

The chivo slowly lowers its head getting ever closer to my own face, but it seems to be doing so weakly. Its eyes are closing, it's not dead yet. Not yet. I pull on the handle for one last time and I'm able to pinpoint the exact moment life escapes the gaze of its red eyes.

The ringing in both head and ears seems to be wearing off, but now I have the corpse of a slightly large aragami pinning me to the ground.

"Keyla! Are…ok?" I hear Miku's voice faintly.

"Jesus fucking Christ Boyd," I hear Arturo, "Help me get this thing off of her Mimi."

I can feel my hands still tightly gripping my weapon, actually, in an unconscious fit I can feel my left hand still pushing and pulling on my god arc's firing mechanism. I start hearing a loud clank every time I pull the handle all the way back, my gun is already empty.

I see both Arturo and Miku trying to lift the body off of me and after one failed attempt they manage to push it off to the side. I can feel all of my middle and lower body drenched in warm aragami blood. Miku kneels next to me and grabs my head with both of her hands.

"Can you hear me?"

"Ye…e..." I utter, despite wanting to answer correctly.

I feel another hand over my face and feel as my head is jerked to the side. I end up looking straight at Arturo who is currently holding my left eye open to look straight at him.

"Shit…her pupils are huge," he says, "Can you walk?"

"I…yes...walk…" I mumble.

Instead of trying to generate any other words I simply nod. Arturo and Miku help me back on my feet and the second I stand up straight I feel my legs shake. After a mere second of standing up they buckle under my weight and Miku offers her shoulder for me to even be able to stand.

My eyes start looking for my god arc and I force Miku to bend down with me in order to get a hold of it. I pick it up and rest it over the chivo's body. Sharp like teeth suddenly emerge from the sides of my god arc as it starts chomping on the dead aragami.

I have seen other god eater have their arc do this but seeing it first-hand almost makes me want to drop my arc on the spot.

"Where did it hit you?" Miku asks, sounding distressed.

"It hit me in the face," I manage to speak.

"Oh, so maybe some of that blood is yours," Arturo jokes as he tries to clean my face with the sleeve of his shirt.

I can feel him trying to clean off as much as possible, he backs away with his sleeve now completely drenched in blood. He stares at my face for several seconds and I can't help but to look away.

"Yup, the impact probably opened your head a little," he says.

"HQ this is Kilo," Miku issues, "We have a God Eater with a serious concussion."

"Copy, did you encounter aragami?"

"Chivos, four of them, they have been dealt with," Miku replies.

"Alright, we'll send Aztec One for you then."

Something in that sentence does not sit well at all with me.

"What the fuck…." I grunt, "Would they not send evac if we didn't kill the Aragami?"

Arturo starts laughing a little bit a he rests his god arc over his shoulder. He takes a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and opens it. He wastes little time in getting one on his mouth and lighting it.

"It's good to see you can curse, I like you already," he says, "and you are right."

"Why?" I ask.

I can feel as Miku starts patting her pants trying to find what I can only assume is Arturo's cigarettes.

"When did you grab them back?" she asks.

"I grabbed them when you were helping her up," he laughs, "As I was saying, helicopters are more valuable to HQ than we are."

I can hear a helicopter approaching in the distance. Arturo blows out smoke, this time the smoke he blows out quickly dissipates instead of forming a thick cloud.

"Kilo this is Aztec one, I will be arriving at your armlet positions in a few seconds," Frederick replies.

"Fred be a dear," Arturo says, "How many evacs have you been told not to do by HQ."

There's a long pause once Arturo asks this.

"Too many," I hear Fredrick reply over the radio.

Arturo just laughs a little, letting the morbid mood of the topic settle in even further. He suddenly sits on the ground and pulls out a pocket knife. He nestles his god arc over his lap and starts scratching a two lines on its side.

"Arturo likes to keep a tally," Miku murmurs.

After drawing the lines over his god arc, Arturo turns the blade around to reveal several marks on the other side.

"Seventy six," he says, "say Boyd, how many have you killed?"

I laugh a little as I feel some of my blood trickle down my face. I lift my arc, my hand shaking in the process. I point my god arc at the one chivo I managed kill.

"You are kidding…" Arturo replies, the helicopter now being close enough for the gust of its blades to tussle his hair back and forth.

I muster up the courage to look him in the eye, the effort it takes me to lift my eyes off the ground almost makes me faint. However, I stare him in the and give him a big smile.

* * *

Crysina here!

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!

Geez, I feel rather bad for leaving this story without an update for so long. I'm extremely happy to see some people being vocal in the reviews. I hope this chapter is up to your standards. Nevertheless I'm having a bit of trouble writing this story, mainly due to having a lot of stuff to do around these festive days. If you celebrate Christmas this is my present to you! I'll definitely try to get the next chapter rout sooner.

It's funny you know, if you've ever played God Eater you know that to kill Aragami you have to hit and hit and hit and hit and hit them until they die. However on the OVAs and Anime they cut through them like butter, that's what I find funny. so I'll kind of go by those rules on this fic.

That is all for today! If you like what you read please leave a review, I love reading them! If not you can also leave a review!

I will see you all soon! (Hopefully I'll be able to get on a schedule soon!)


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